Playing Matchmaker
by Suninthemorning2
Summary: Just what can one little girl do in a matter of minutes that can change her whole family and her future? Five year old Michelle Stabler is one smart girl, so smart that she had to skip a whole grade, so when her concerned new teacher calls in her father in, sparks fly and a love is born. Can it live? Experiment story #1, tell us what you think! (Rated K for first few chapters)
1. Chapter 1

**Hey everyone! I'm in Australia, YAY! I made this new friend at camp, she's letting me use her laptop to write with while we both come up with the stories. It's pretty cool here, it's blazing hot though. But anywho, this is one of my new stories, I hope it's good, I try my best. Oh, in case you don't know, dyslexia- comes up in the story- is a mental disorder that challenges the brain when you try to read, makes writing come up backwards or upside down, and you usually can't write correctly, just in case you needed to know. OK, that's about it, hope you enjoy and if you don't... don't read it! :):):)**

* * *

"Daddy higher! Higher!" Little Michelle Stabler giggled as her father pushed her on the swings.

Elliot laughed and pushed harder and harder on the swing, making his five year old daughter go up higher on every push. It was the last day of summer vacation, and since Michelle was scared about entering the first grade- when they tested her for kindergarten the teachers had said that she would never be nearly as challenged as the other kids because she had already learned her alphabet-sort of, she still had trouble with the quality of her spelling and her reading-, numbers and basic math and writing skills from watching her father intently- Elliot had decided to take her to her favorite park, to soothe her mind.

Especially as a single dad, Elliot had always taken much pride and care for Michelle, she was his life and spirit. So he always taught her what she needed to know to survive in the outside world, and she was already at five an extremely bright girl. When Michelle's mother, Kathy, left Elliot only a week after Michelle was born, Elliot had sworn to protect her from any sorrow that the world could bring to such a precious, innocent girl.

And by the looks of her, so far he has done a superb job, because every day she woke up as cheery as ever, eager to get out into the open universe and explore everything there was to see. Even on their bad days, she still stayed proud and strong, and Elliot felt as if he could never be happier, well, at home that is.

Work wasn't going too great for him this month. The last case that he worked got to him bad, so bad that he had actually hospitalized the perp when he was interviewing him. So for now, Elliot was on suspension, suspected to come back to work in about another month or so.

"Daddy! Watch me jump off, I know how to land on my feet now!" Michelle called down below her.

"OK! Let's see it." Eliot said, standing back to get a better view.

"Remember, sweetheart, count your swings back from three then jump." Elliot reminded.

"I know! One... two... three!" Michelle squealed as she let go of the swing and went airborne into the sky, then, as promised, landing flat on her feet into the soft, hot sand.

Michelle clapped her hands vigorously and turned around to face Elliot, then waved over to him proudly. He walked towards her to give her a high five.

"Nice one, kiddo. Flawless." Elliot congratulated.

"I told you I could do it, daddy." Michelle teased and stuck out her tongue.

Elliot laughed and stuck his tongue out as well and put his thumbs to his ears and wiggled his fingers.

"Daddy! Stop! Hey, can we go get ice cream?" Michelle smiled sweetly, jutting her lower lip out at her father and looking into his identical-to-hers baby blue eyes.

"Mmm... why not?" Elliot smiled, pulling Michelle to his side and hugging her.

"Can we walk on the trail? Daddy please!" Michelle pleaded more, referring to the sidewalk.

"Uh huh." Elliot nodded, guiding her over to the sidewalk.

"So... did coming to the park help you calm down about the whole school thing?" Elliot asked as they began to walk down the street to Michelle's favorite ice cream shop.

"Sorta. But I'm still a little scared." Michelle admitted.

"And why is that?"

"Because... I'm smarter than all the other five year olds... and I'm gonna be put in a class with bigger kids, that I don't even know. What if they make fun of me?"

"Oh Michelle, no one is gonna pick on you... you're an amazing girl to be around. But, if they do, you can always come to me, or a teacher. And who says you have to be friends with the older kids? You can still play with the kids your age at recess."

"Yeah, you're right." Michelle smiled and hugged Elliot again, then focused on the sidewalk as they turned a corner.

"Hey daddy?" Michelle thought of something again.

"What if I'm not smart enough?" She asked.

"Easy, then we put you back into kindergarten with the other kids your age, but I'm pretty sure that you will be doing just fine, OK? Hey look, we're here. Come on, lets go get some of your favorite ice cream, then we can head home, get all of your school stuff ready." Elliot smiled, pulling her into the small ice cream parlor.

Elliot and Michelle arrived hand in hand up the steps to their apartment building and were walking down the hall to their number when they saw a bunch of people crowding apartment 2B. Movers.

"Who are they, daddy?" Michelle asked, looking up towards Elliot.

"Apparently we're getting a new neighbor." Elliot said.

He and Michelle then went inside their house and continued with their school organization for the next day.

"Crayons?" Elliot called off of the list of needed school supplies for the first graders. Michelle grabbed the pack of crayons her dad bought her not too long ago and stuffed them into the smallest pocket of her jansport backpack.

"Check." She said.

"Two or three number two pencils with a small sharpener."

Michelle shoved them into her pink pencil box and set it back down on the ground.

"Check."

"And lastly, two glue sticks or one bottle of glue."

Michelle already had the glue sticks placed in her pencil box which was already in her backpack.

"Done."

Elliot smiled and folded the piece of paper back up and placed it in his pocket, just in case they needed to double check any time soon.

"Alrighty, you're good to go! And I already made your lunch, its in the fridge and your lunch bag is on the counter. The cooler for it is in the freezer. And that's it, honey." Elliot smiled and pulled Michelle into a quick hug before pulling out his iPhone and checked the time.

"Whoa, it's already eight thirty. Time to put your little butt to bed." Elliot laughed as Michelle got up and ran to her room.

"Hurry up! Or I'm gonna getcha! I'm coming!" Elliot called out.

Michelle giggled and jumped under the covers of her bed, trying to protect herself from Elliot. But it didn't work, he towered over her and started tickling her madly until she finally couldn't breath.

"Give up?" Elliot chuckled.

Michelle laughed crazily and nodded her head and snuggled into her pillow.

"Good. Cause it's bedtime." Elliot reached over and turned off the lamp right next to Michelle's head, then bent down and kissed her cheek.

"Goodnight baby, I love you." Elliot mumbled.

"Love you too, daddy." Michelle smiled, her eyes already shut.

"See you tomorrow morning." Elliot whispered, then left the room, leaving the door open just a crack, like he always did for her.

"Alright baby, this is it. Now remember, if you think that it's just not working out for you, just tell the teacher and we will get it all fixed out, OK?" Elliot assured.

The two of them were both standing outside the door to Michelle's new classroom, and Elliot was just about to take off. Michelle looked really nervous, because all of the other kids had seemed to know each other, and when they looked at her they looked confused.

"OK, bye daddy. I love you." Michelle whispered, then hugged Elliot one last time for good luck.

"Bye bye princess, I'll see you after school, right here." Elliot assured.

Michelle nodded and rushed over to the door to her classroom, waved goodbye to Elliot one last time, then walked into the brightly decorated classroom. In the center the room there were four large (to the kids) round tables in a box like pattern. Six chairs, four of each color of the rainbow, with one rainbow set per table, were set out. Michelle looked over to the large whiteboard on the farthest wall of the room. She thought it read in bold and decorated letters: "Ms. Benson's class, room 108. Take a seat with your last years table buddies.", but she couldn't really make out the whole sentence well. Michelle looked around at all of the kids who were gathering up in the room, setting their stuff down in their designated areas.

"Are you lost, sweetie?" Michelle heard someone ask her.

She jumped and shot around, looking up at the pretty woman staring down at her. She looked nice, maybe she was her teacher this year.

"Are you my teacher?" Michelle asked her hopefully.

"Well, I don't remember you from last year, and all of my kindergarten students transferred up to my first grade class, so I don't know. Oh! Wait a minute! Are you miss... Michelle Stabler?" Olivia asked.

Michelle nodded her head and tapped her toes in her shoes nervously.

"Oh you poor thing, you must be so confused! I'm sorry about that I really forgot that I got a new student this year. But at five, wow, you must be a smart girl. Oh, Vanessa, sweetheart can you come here for a moment please." Olivia ordered one of the girls from table two.

The girl nodded and came running over.

"Hi, I'm Vanessa. Yes, Ms. Benson?" Vanessa greeted Michelle.

"Hi there Vanessa, did you have a fun summer?"

She nodded.

"Great. Listen, I need you to do me a big favor, you see this here is Michelle. She's supposed to be in kindergarten but she's so smart that she got sent here instead, so she's very confused. Could you show her around the classroom and just introduce her to everyone at your table, she's going to sit next to you this year." Olivia instructed.

"OK, come on, Michelle, I'll let you have the purple seat, cause it's the prettiest." Vanessa smiled and dragged Michelle over to their table and let her set her backpack down. Michelle smiled at Vanessa shyly, she liked her free spirit because it matched her own, and she liked how she wasn't shy to share everything with her.

Olivia watched closely as more students piled in and Vanessa introduced Michelle to every one of them. Olivia couldn't help but smile at this little Michelle girl, she was very straight forward, honest, she was definitely a sweetheart and kind soul, and as the minutes went on and on, Olivia saw more and more personality burst out of Michelle's tiny body.

Suddenly the bell rang, and Olivia ordered for all the students, except for Michelle, to take a seat. All the tiny children's eyes found their way up to her, and Olivia smiled.

"Woow! Very impressive, you all know that 'I heart a silent start', well that was really good. OK, so, first order of business, I don't know if you all have noticed, but this is the exact same classroom and classmates and, of course, teacher that you all had last year. Except, for this little one. Everyone, I'd like you all to meet Michelle Stabler, she will be joining us in our learning trip this year." Olivia announced.

The whole class erupted into hello's and hi's everywhere and then quickly got quiet again, because they all knew what the wrath of Ms. Benson looked like, and it was not pretty.

"OK Michelle, you can go take a seat. Now, next, in order to let Michelle get to know each other better, and just in case any of you would like to share anything, I'm going to go table by table, and you all say your name and age, and if you don't wish to say anything else, that's fine, just say the word pass, OK? Ok, so... Michelle let's start with table two at the end of the rainbow, tell everyone about yourself." Olivia smiled brightly at the little girl as she looked at Vanessa and giggled.

"OK. Um... I'm Michelle Stabler, I just turned five last month..." just like that the whole class bursted out.

'you're only five?!' 'You aren't supposed to be here!' 'I'm confused.' Those were the only types of things Michelle could hear being said throughout the classroom until Ms. Benson put a fist in the air.

Vanessa and everyone else joined her in throwing their fists up, so Michelle did it too, a little confused.

"It means hush up." Vanessa whispered.

Michelle nodded and set her fist down with everyone else.

"Well then, yes it is true, Michelle is only five years old. Michelle had to skip kindergarten this year because when they gave her a special test, she got really high scores so they put her in here." Olivia explained.

All of the children then nodded as they began to process why she was here.

"So, Michelle, you were saying?" Olivia let her continue.

"Oh, right, OK I'm five. And for summer, me and my daddy went all the way to California and went camping for two weeks, then we came back home and I got to spend some time with my mommy for a couple days, and... yeah." Michelle giggled, Vanessa still whispering funny stuff under her breath.

Olivia nodded and smiled at Michelle.

All of the children got their time to talk about summer, and by the time everyone was done it was time for recess. All of the kids scurried to the door, and right when Michelle and Vanessa were leaving to go play four square with some of Vanessa's other friends, Olivia called Michelle back in for a minute.

"Bye Michelle, if you still have more time I'll be over on the four square court." Vanessa smiled, running away to go catch up with her friends.

"Yes Ms. Benson?" Michelle asked.

"Come here, sit down for a second." Olivia smiled, patting the circular table for Michelle to join her.

Michelle obeyed the order and walked back over to her seat and sat back down. She looked up at Olivia curiously.

"So... I noticed that when you mentioned your age earlier today and everyone got surprised, you kind of spazzed a little there. And I just wanted to tell you, don't let those older kids intimidate you one bit. I did the same thing when I was your age, I had to skip first grade because I was smarter than them, but sometimes the second graders intimidated me." Olivia smiled.

"You know what intimidate means, right?" Olivia asked.

Michelle nodded, her dad told her what the word meant when she was three, and Captain/'Grandpa' Cragen yelled at Elliot for intimidating their perp too much.

"My daddy told me when I was three. It means to physically or emotionally threaten or scare someone by appearance." Michelle recited what her father told her when she was a kid.

Olivia looked down at Michelle and laughed slightly, she was really smart for her age. It was actually quite intriguing to Olivia

"Hey Michelle?" Olivia started.

"Yes?"

"I've got something important to tell you, and I really need you to remember it and tell your mommy or daddy after school today, OK?" Olivia smiled and patted Michelle's hand with her own.

Michelle nodded excitedly at Olivia, she could remember anything if she really wanted to. She was perfectly capable of remembering anything Olivia wanted for three more hours.

"OK, so you know how you took that test earlier in the year? Well I just got your test results yesterday, and I need to have kind of like a parent teacher conference with parents after school. I won't say anything bad about you, I just need to talk about your advantages and disadvantages being in this class. So, do you think you can remember to tell your mommy after school?" Olivia smiled at her.

Michelle shook her head slowly and pouted for a second.

"My mommy doesn't love as much as daddy, she left when I was just an 'itty bitty baby.'" Michelle quoted from her father.

"Oh, I'm so sorry sweetheart, I mean, I only assumed. But I get it, I never met my daddy, he... died, before I was born." Olivia lied, she wasn't going to tell this innocent five year old how her mother was raped.

"But I can tell my daddy after school, he'd love to come see you. He's siiingllle." Michelle giggled and wagged her eyebrows at Olivia. She laughed and patted Michelle's shoulder.

"Well that's great, so am I, and after only one conference with your father, I think I'm staying that way. No go, you've still got five minutes, go play four square, make new friends." Olivia smiled, and gave Michelle a small push to speed her up when she got up from the chair.

Michelle smiled to herself. She really like Ms. Benson, and she just knew that her father was going to love her, it just had to happen. Michelle ran over to the four square court and waved at Vanessa, who was in the middle of a game. She quickly looked back to Ms. Benson's room and smiled.

'She'll love my daddy. I'll make sure of it.' She thought to herself.

The rest of the day went by in a wink of an eye, the only thing the class did that day was catch up with everyone else, then a few games and arts and crafts, and right now all the kids were all cutting out colored pieces of paper to make their selves out of for their 'me posters' which Ms. Benson was going to hang all of them up for back to school night next week.

"OK, kids, there's only two more minutes, just leave the undone 'me posters' on your desk and I'll collect them when the glue dries. Besides the posters though, it's time to pack up!" Olivia announced to the class.

Michelle was probably the fastest one to clean up, because instead of making a random Mosaic of her face the the other children did, she actually used her ruler and measure the height and width of her face and cut out a circle with the same measurements. Vanessa thought she was a true genius for doing so, and Michelle just told her honestly, her father taught her how to do that.

Michelle slapped her backpack on her back and waited over by her desk for the bell, talking to Vanessa. Olivia smiled at all of the kids in the room, she missed them over the break, and she loved having them back in her class. She looked over to Michelle. She wasn't going to remind her about the conference with Elliot, she wanted to put Michelle's mind span to the test.

The bell rang abruptly, and Michelle and Vanessa were so caught up in conversation that everyone basically ran them over to get to the door. Vanessa giggled and grabbed her backpack off the table.

"It was fun meeting you, Michelle. I'm excited to have you in my class, I've gotta go, bye!" Vanessa called out as she ran to her awaiting mother at the door.

When the two cleared the doorway, Michelle could see from here two people waiting outside.

"Daddy!" Michelle cheered, running out the door and over to Elliot.

Olivia walked over to Michelle's chair and laughed. She down at the pieces of paper that she had neatly cut out, and was honestly surprised to see the measurements of each on the back of all of them.

"Auntie Alex, what are you doing here?" Michelle asked in Elliot's arms.

"I wasn't gonna miss your first day of school, you miss skip a grade! Gosh, you're getting too big and smart.

Michelle giggled and looked down at Elliot.

"Daddy, Ms. Benson gave me special words to say to you, she told me to tell you she needs 'to just talk about your advantages and disadvantages being in this class. " Michelle repeated.

"I thought that that would happen. That's why auntie Alex is here, she's gonna take you home while I talk to Ms. Benson." Elliot said.

"OK, but can I see Ms. Benson first?" Michelle pleaded.

"Alright, you can come in with me, but once it gets serious you're going home." Elliot warned, setting her down and watching her run inside.

"Ms. Benson I got him! He's here!" Michelle called over to her.

Olivia was currently switching her textbooks around, so there were tons of boxes she was carrying around everywhere. She set down the box she was currently replacing and stood up straight to see a very handsome man with baby blue eyes step into the classroom.

Elliot's mouth basically fell to the floor when he saw her, she was incredible. Her shoulder length brown hair had gotten a little in her face, just barely covering all of her right eye. She quickly brushed her hair off of her eye and smiled.

"Hello, Mr. Stabler, I'm Ms. Benson. Sorry about the boxes, I'm just in the middle of switching textbooks over with the classroom down the hall." She smiled, extending her hand to shake with Elliot.

"Hi, please, call me Elliot. So, Michelle tells that you need to talk to me about some advantages and disadvantages." Elliot said.

"Nice job remembering, girl. Um, yes I do, oh here, have a seat." Olivia said, pulling out two of the chairs to table three.

"Hey, Michelle baby, it's time to go, you don't want to keep auntie Alex waiting." Elliot said softly.

Michelle nodded and gave her dad one more hug and kiss before she left. Elliot smiled and sat back down with Olivia. He sighed and shook his head at his daughter.

"Ah, she gets a little excited about... everything." Elliot chuckled.

"Oh that's natural, and she's actually a little cute when she hangs on your every word." Olivia smiled.

"She does that to you too?" Elliot asked.

Olivia nodded.

"But that's only when she's not talking about you. She is actually advancing her performance more than the other kids just by cutting out paper. You see, we were making these posters today where they had to cur out construction paper and make their faces, then put down three sentences that described their personality. These are the ones that the kids were doing." Olivia said, pointing down to the pictures on the desk.

She quickly got up and retrieved Michelle's then sat back down with Elliot.

"And that is Michelle's. Mr. Stabler, she was measuring the length and width of her actual head." Olivia pointed out.

Elliot smiled and looked down at the poster Michelle made. He and Michelle made something like that together for her room, except it was a butterfly and the measurements they cut out on wood.

"Uhm, yeah. I guess I'm guilty of that one. I taught her how to do that last year when she helped me build and paint a wooden butterfly to hang up in her room. I taught her that trick so she would always evenly cut things out." Elliot explained.

"Yes, but Elliot, that is ninth grade geometry she was learning. She is five. It is actually really amazing to me to find someone her age who even knows a little bit about second or third grade material, let alone ninth." Olivia admitted.

"Well thank you, Ms. Benson. But its not me, I'm only showing her, she is the one who actually asked me to measure out a butterfly and multiply the size by making a bigger one." Elliot said honestly.

"Please, call me Olivia." Olivia grinned.

"Olivia, lovely name. Suits a lovely girl, anyways..." before Elliot could continue he felt his phone buzzing in his pocket. He pulled it out and quickly looked at who was calling. 'Home' popped up on the screen.

"I'm so sorry, do you mind if I take this?" Elliot asked.

"Oh take your time." Olivia smiled, then got up to go do more boxes while he talked.

"Stabler." He answered.

"Daddy, do you like her? Do ya?!" He heard his daughter answer.

"Michelle, I was in the middle of talking with her until you called. Yeah, I like her, she's telling me all of your secrets." Elliot joked.

Elliot heard Michelle scream no a bunch of times and Olivia at the other side of the room laughing at how loud Michelle was.

"Sweetheart I'll be home soon, OK? Just go play with Alex and before you know it I'll be home. I gotta go now, baby, see you soon." Elliot said into the phone.

"Love you!" Michelle said, already preoccupied with something else.

"Love you more." Elliot hung up.

He put his phone back into his pocket and looked over to Olivia, who was picking up the two stacked up boxes of textbooks to go bring to a teacher.

"Oh here, let me get them." Elliot insisted, rushing to her side and grabbing the boxes out of her arms.

He carried them over to the door as if they were weightless, making Olivia notice for the first time today how incredibly built he was. His biceps jutted out from the dark shirt that he had on which made Olivia's mouth dry. She could just imagine herself fitting in those same arms as he carried her to bed, she could imagine his strong muscles deflating as he held Michelle when she slept, when she cried, when she was hurt.

There you go, not that bad." Elliot said, snapping Olivia out of her trance.

"Oh, thanks for the help, Ms. Martinez has a key to my room, I'll just let her get them. So what did Michelle need?" Olivia asked.

"She wanted to know if I liked you." Elliot chuckled.

"Oh, little troublemaker's playing matchmaker." Olivia smiled.

"Something like that. Oh, back on the subject, she didn't give you any trouble about the whole situation today did she? Because she was paranoid yesterday." Elliot asked.

"No, not at all. She was very nervous at first, but I set her up with this little girl, Vanessa. She's just like Michelle. Your daughter fit in just fine." Olivia informed.

"But, there is one thing that does concern me." Olivia announced.

"What's that?" Elliot asked.

"Well I was looking at her test from last month, and I did notice something about her. When she started the math test she did just fine, a natural at math. But when she got to the English portion and had to read every problem, she got a little weird with it. She was writing all of the paragraphs on the page in an upside down font." Olivia started.

"Oh, her dyslexia? Yeah, I knew that that was going to be a problem. I've been taking her to the doctor about it every Saturday, he says for now just let her write paragraphs upside down when she needs to read them, and he is now working with her letter by letter." Elliot explained.

"OK that's great. Yeah, I saw that and I didn't know if you knew, but it did concern me. That was the disadvantage I was talking about. If her dyslexia doesn't get better, we might have to give her after school reading lessons. Maybe even drop her back down a grade." Olivia warned.

"I know, I was just talking to the counselor about that a couple weeks ago, said they might have to pull her. She would be devastated if she found out that she wasn't capable of first grade level material. She is such an over achiever and a perfectionist, I always tell her that everyone had their flaws but she sometimes beats herself up because she can't read right." Elliot sighed.

"Awe, poor little Michelle. You know, if you would like, I'm actually one of the teachers of the reading classes. If she feels that she would be embarrassed taking the class here I would be more than happy to give her a few tutoring sessions. That way I could also make sure she has the right qualities for my class if she is to continue." Olivia smiled.

"Really, you would do that for her? Well... thank you. Sure, I would be happy to have you over at my place to help her, or if you want to go somewhere else that's fine too." Elliot stuttered.

"Great. Whenever she's ready I'll just call you and set it up. But for now, I've got to get home, I just moved into my new apartment yesterday, still things everywhere to unpack." Olivia chuckled, walking over to her desk to pull her keys out of her drawer.

"Oh, I know the feeling of that. I was always moving around when I first joined the police academy. I would go from L.A. all the way to Nashville for an undercover case or a new job in a matter of hours." Elliot stated, thinking back to his first few years of being a cop, what his friends like to call the "testing days."

"You're a detective?" Olivia asked shocked, how could a man so nice and sweet have a job like that?

"Of four years, currently in Special Victims Unit." Elliot announced proudly.

"Really... that's a tough one." Olivia sighed.

"Yeah I know, especially when I have to go home to Michelle... she's my baby, if anything like I see every day ever happened to her... I'd probably go insane." Elliot spoke softly.

Olivia knew the feeling. Hell, she was one of those kids, it's just that she never got saved from it as a kid. She lived through that trauma for seventeen years, now, when she moved to New York, she has a crazy, sex addicted ex-boyfriend to deal with, who no matter how many times she moves he always finds out where she lives. In other words, Olivia knew the feeling, because her life was just as messed up.

"I probably would too if I were in your shoes... anyways, like I've said, I really should get going." Olivia put on a plastic smile, hiding all of the hurt she had remembered deep inside her, like she always did, and looked up at Elliot, into his crystal blue eyes.

"Yeah, me too. But it was nice meeting you, I'll see you again next week for back to school night. And I'll talk to Michelle tonight, we'll set something up for her later on." Elliot said and shook her hand once again.

* * *

Elliot pulled in to the parking spot of his apartment and pulled the key out of the ignition to his car. He sighed and opened the door, stepping out and into the fresh air. He turned around and closed the door, locked the car, and was about to walk into the building when he saw a car pull into the garage as well. Elliot smiled at the neighbors in the car and waved, thinking it was probably someone he already knew from inside. But then he took a deeper look inside the car, and saw a woman, who was extremely familiar.

"Olivia?" Elliot called out as the woman parked her car and opened the door. There she stood, just as shocked as he was.

"Elliot! What, what are you doing here?" Olivia asked.

"Um, going inside. I live here." Elliot laughed.

"Really! Small world, huh, I told you I just moved yesterday." Olivia smiled.

"Yeah. Well come on, I'll walk you in. What floor are you on?" Elliot asked as they got inside and into an elevator.

"Eight, I'm 2B." Olivia told him. Elliot looked down at her surprised. She was the reason why all of the movers were surrounding his front door yesterday, it was all her.

"No! It was you! Michelle and I were getting home from the park and ice cream late last night and I was trying to open the door, but people kept bumping into Michelle and she started complaining about them, asking me who they were and why they were being mean to her. I had to explain that you were just moving and they were just doing their job." Elliot chuckled.

"What really? I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to get in anyone's way. Gosh, I can't even move anywhere anymore without getting into trouble with someone." Olivia apologized.

The elevator door swung open and up they were on the eighth floor, just a few steps away from their apartments. They passed the last of the A buildings, then came B1, and there was B2, Olivias's door. across from her was B3, Elliot's door. Elliot and Olivia laughed at the short amount of distance there was from the two. Looks like it wouldn't really take much effort to contact Olivia about anything serious. Suddenly, like she knew he was home, Michelle swung the front door open, and smiled up at Elliot.

"Auntie Alex, Daddy's home!" Michelle cheered, running to his spot in the hallway and jumping onto him, wrapping her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck.

Olivia smiled sadly up at Michelle. She wished that a child could one day scream like that when they saw her get home from work, jump into her arms, he child saying sweetly, 'I love you, Mama.' But so far in life, nobody worthy of a relationship has come up yet, except for the man she stood in front of right now, but that would probably never happen.

"Ms. Benson! What are you doing here?" Michelle smiled over to Olivia as she still held tightly onto Elliot's neck.

"I live right across from you two, sweetheart.' Olivia explained.

Michelle beamed with happiness. Yes, her plan had worked. Her and Elliot had fallen in love, and Elliot would soon remarry and have Olivia move in with them and live happily forever after. Michelle always had a big imagination, sometimes Elliot wondered how much useful information was in that child's brain compared to all of the ludicrous stories and fantasies she had come up with. But little did anyone, not even Michelle, know, that this recent fairy tale she had in mind... no matter how crazy and out of the question it was, if little Michelle Stabler played her cards right and fair, her job as matchmaker would be a complete success.

* * *

**Hello everyone viewing! My name is Siena, and I'm not from this channel! I hope that you all have visited Suninthemorning's stories, she showed them to me just a second ago after our swim and I love them. We share a cabin this year, so I'm getting to know her pretty well. This is one of the stories we have been writing, I as well as Suninthemorning (I'm keeping her name a secret!) love watching SVU, and I'm also a fan of the Hunger Games. But on the other hand, we are still going to try to write more for this story, but we are really busy with camp, and what we are doing is making a bunch of first chapters to new stories then leaving them aside to add to them later. I want to see how many ideas I could make for stories. Ok, I will stop rambling on, now. I hope you enjoyed, see ya!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Stella's back! Hello free world, I am SO tired right now! It is three in the morning on July 10th, 2014 (We are officially (not) going to document our times down!) And we are in the middle of writing like... THREE different stories! I'm going insane (in a good way). Oh, before I forget, we have decided to take down our story 'Nationals' due to lack of interest... sorry. Nobody liked it, which is sad because I know Rachael loved writing about dance, her second passion (out of like seven! God she is like, superwoman USA edition or something I swear!) But oh well. We are going to keep our chapter one document for a few more weeks though just in case you all want it back, but we have our hands full already, one experiment going away isn't too bad. Alrighty, enjoy free world! See you later!**

* * *

"Daddy, how come you never got married after mama left?" Michelle asked, picking some soup up with her spoon and watching it fall back in to her bowl.

Elliot looked over to Michelle with a curious look. She had never asked him a question so far fetched before. He looked over to Alex who just shrugged. She had this look in her eyes that kind of said 'your call, detective'. Elliot cleared his throat and tried to come up with a good answer.

"Well sweetheart, I guess I never married anyone after mama just because, mama was the only girl I ever loved. Well... I take that back, mama and _you_ are the only girls I've ever loved." Elliot said honestly.

"But have you ever tried to fall in love again before?" Michelle pressed him, swinging her legs under the table with anticipation for his answer.

"I think what you father is trying to say Michelle, is that you don't always find your true love the first time you see them, and that you really have to look to find who you love." Alex covered for him.

"But I love you, and I love daddy, and grandpa Donny and Uncle Fin and Munch, it didn't take me long to find out that I loved you." Michelle stated curiously.

"That's a different kind of love honey, that's family. You're talking about... more of a grown up kind of love, that is a lot harder to find." Elliot explained.

Michelle pouted in frustration. Nobody was getting at what she was hinting at. She swung her legs back and forth a little harder to distract herself from the stress she was putting on herself. And also to get her mind off things, she started to picture the alphabet in her head. Her father always told her, when something is bothering you or you get stressed out, just start reviewing things in her head, like the alphabet right side up or how to jump off a swing.

"Something on your mind, bouncy?" Alex asked softly, referring to her swinging legs; since Michelle was like her dad with getting upset a lot, and kicking her legs was what soothed her, Alex always referred to her as bouncy or just plain bounce.

"Love sucks." Michelle said dully. Then she laughed at how funny that sounded coming out of her mouth, which made Alex and Elliot laugh too.

Michelle sighed contently and started to eat her soup again, remembering to tip her spoon slightly when she blew on it so it would cool faster, just like her father taught her. She finished her small bowl of soup quickly, then set her spoon down on her napkin. She then she smiled sweetly at her father.

"May I please be excused, daddy?" She asked politely.

Elliot chuckled at his small daughter. He knew that 'may I be excused' really meant 'can I go play now'.

"Go rinse your bowl out and then you can go play." Elliot agreed.

The small Stabler nodded her head and hopped up out of her set, grabbing her bowl and rushing into the kitchen to rinse it off and put it in the dishwasher. Not too long after, Elliot and Alex finished up as well and as they entered the kitchen, and little blonde haired hurricane came rushing past them. Elliot had to call out to her for her to be careful before he could start loading up the dishwasher with all the other dishes in the sink.

"OK seriously El, she literally gets cuter by the minute." Alex laughed and shook her head as she helped him with the dishes.

"Yeah I know. I'm gonna dread it when she turns thirteen and the little cute stage is officially over." Elliot smiled to himself. He knew that no matter what Michelle would always be his little girl, but she would only be his, she didn't say anything about staying attached to him for the rest of her life.

"But that's a long time from now.'' Alex pointed out.

"There is that." Elliot nodded, closing the door to the dishwasher.

He let the machine run while he and Alex both walked out into the living room to sit down and chat.

"So. This new Ms. Benson girl... is she cute?" Alex smiled playfully.

"Alex! Don't you start with me too." Elliot warned the blonde.

"What? I'm just curious. For all you know I could have dramatically become a lesbian overnight and am looking for a hot new girl to date." Alex joked with a big laugh.

"Well in that case, then yes. She is really cute. And smart and funny, just like most other teachers are." Elliot chuckled at his best friend.

Alex waggled her eyebrows at him and held two thumbs up. They continued to chat comfortably for the next few minutes before both Elliot and Alex were brought out of their conversation by a loud bang, then a high pitched cry. All of a sudden, Michelle came walking out of her room, hugging herself tightly. Elliot shot up and bolted over to her, crouching down to inspect his daughter. She looked relatively fine, except for the heart wrenching tears rolling down her face.

"Baby what happened? Are you hurt?" Elliot asked softly.

"No, but daddy! I'm sorry!" She wailed. She ran off to her room before he could ask what about.

He followed his young daughter down the hall into her bedroom to find out what was wrong, but she wasn't in there. He turned to look in his room, and once he looked towards his bed he knew what was wrong.

When Michelle was a baby, Elliot had gone out to go get some pictures of her taken, so he could keep them with him when he traveled, and some extras that he had mailed to his ex Kathy like he did with all of Michelle's photos, just in case she actually did care about her daughter. But one of the pictures he had ordered especially larger, and hung it up on his wall, right above his bed. Well, now the picture still stayed unharmed, but on the floor. The frame it was in had fallen down onto his bed and the back had knocked off of it, but fortunately there was no harm done to the frame, picture, or most importantly Michelle.

"Oh, Michelle. How many times do I have to tell you not to play around my bed, I keep telling you that there is dangerous stuff around here." Elliot sighed. Yes it was true there was dangerous stuff around his bed, like his gun that he would lay on nightstand just before he would go to sleep.

He walked over to the foot of his bed, where Michelle sat crying and whimpering softly. He scooped her up in his arms and cradled her softly back and forth until her crying subdued. He walked his way back out in to the living room, where Alex sat on the couch waiting patiently for Michelle and Elliot to come out. Alex spotted Michelle and smiled, walking over to Elliot and taking Michelle out of his arms and setting her back down on the couch, where she soothed the rest of her cries away.

* * *

'Was that a bang?' Olivia thought. She stood up straight in her bedroom, putting down the last of the boxes she had to unpack. She walked out to the living room and then out into the hallway to get a better sound. 'Yep, that's crying'. Olivia then remembered who was actually in the building next to hers, and looked over at the door shocked. She turned back into the house and walked over to her dresser in her bedroom. She decided to change from her short shorts, which she would almost always wear after she got home from work. into some actual pants since Michelle was only five and didn't need to be exposed to such short clothing.

Olivia then rushed back in to the hallway to check for the crying again. She didn't know if Mr. Stabler had left back for work or was inside, but all she knew was that the crying had stopped, but it only had subdued to a faint whimper. Olivia decided to knock on the door just in case, to make sure everything was alright. She heard feet shuffling to get it, but they definitely were not Michelle's. And suddenly, she was face to face with Elliot again.

"Oh! My goodness, I'm sorry! I just thought um, I heard Michelle crying and with your work hours and all I thought that you might not have been home. I was just stopping by to check up on her, see if she was alright." Olivia stammered as she looked up into his deep blue eyes.

Elliot nodded and smiled. What a sincere thing to do, but after all, she was a teacher. That's what she was paid to do.

"Ah, OK. Yes, she's just fine, she was jumping on my bed and the picture of her above it fell down. It just scared her a little bit." Elliot explained with a laugh.

Olivia totally understood that. Oh, the things her kindergarten class last year would cry over.

"Daddy? Who are you talking to?" The two heard a small voice ask.

Michelle came walking up behind Elliot, rubbing the rest of her tears away from her eyes. Alex stood next to her, just as curious to who was at the door. Michelle saw Olivia and smiled, running over to her dad and jumping onto his back so she could get a better look at Olivia from the door.

"I'm talking to the police, they've come here to arrest you for reckless adorablilty." Elliot laughed, tickling Michelle's fingers that were wrapped around his neck.

Olivia giggled and shook her head, then smiled at Michelle.

"Oh snap, I must have forgotten my handcuffs! Elliot, do you mind if I borrow yours?" Olivia played along.

Michelle squealed and hopped off of Elliot back and ran away to her room. The three adults laughed at the little girl and sighed contently. Olivia looked over to the blonde, a new face. Olivia smiled and held out her hand.

"Oh, you must be Elliot's girlfriend. Hi, I'm Olivia Benson." Olivia introduced.

Alex shook her hand kindly, but then stopped once she took everything in.

"Benson? Girlfriend? HA! He wishes I was his girlfriend, no I'm just a friend of his from work, visiting Michelle is all." Alex laughed.

Elliot put his head in his hands, obviously embarrassed by Alex. Olivia slowly shook her head, trying to process what the woman had just said. Then in the end, she just had to laugh too.

"Well I'm Alex. That's Elliot. You're Olivia. OK, well we should all go get some coffee sometime." Alex suggested.

"Yeah, that would be great. Would you like to join us in a heated lady session for coffee?" Olivia joked.

"Oh my gosh, yes I would love to!" Elliot mimicked the two girls.

"Shut up, you goofball. Alright, well it was nice meeting you, Olivia. But for now I have to go home, to my own life instead of barging into his. Oh Elliot, I talked to Cragen, he said meet him at the precinct Thursday next week if you still want your job." Alex reminded him, then brushed past Olivia and was out like a light.

"Ah, Alex Cabot. She's worse than Michelle." Elliot laughed sadly.

"I can tell. Well, I best be going back now, before Michelle comes back and pulls me in to her magical fortress or whatever she makes up next." Olivia smiled.

"Yeah, she tends to do that... Well, I'll see you around, I guess." Elliot chuckled. Olivia nodded and held up her hand, waving goodbye. Elliot grinned and closed the door, then started to walk back to his room to fix the picture frame.

A few hours later, when it was around ten p.m., and Elliot was just finishing unloading the dishwasher. He closed the door and dried off his steamed up hands, and set the dish towel down on the counter so he could go do his nightly checkup on Michelle. He quietly opened the door to his daughters bedroom and was suddenly lit up with the soft pink light coming from the nightlight on her wall. Michelle lay in her bed, peacefully sleeping with her favorite monkey wrapped up in her arms. She had named the monkey 'cuddle buddy', because when Elliot had given it to her he had said that he had to go away for a little bit and that the monkey was to remind her of him when he would cuddle with her. He had sprayed the over sized animal with his cologne when he first got him, and now every month to make Michelle feel safe and loved, he would spray more of it on it's shirt so the smell of him never went away.

Elliot walked over to her bed, and crouched down beside her. He ran his hand down her smooth rosy cheek and let it linger there for a while, then used both hands to pull the blankets on her bed up higher on her body. He bent down and peppered tiny kisses on her forehead, then her nose.

"I love you, my angel." He whispered to his sleeping daughter.

"Love you too, daddy." The light sleeper mumbled.

Elliot smiled and brushed his hand across her cheek one more time, then stood up and walked out of the room again, leaving the door open just a crack in case Michelle had needed him. He walked his way down the hallway and out into the living room again and stood in the middle of the room. Why did life have to treat him so well yet so unfair at the same time? Elliot sighed and padded over to the couch, plopping down on it like a child with an invigorating flu. He looked over to the corner to the coffee table, where he kept Michelle's baby photo album. Whenever Elliot would come home from work at night, if he ever did come home, the first thing he would do before he went to sleep would be tuck in his beautiful daughter, and then he would always look at her old photo album, which she loved to scan over with him at night. She would pick out one of her favorite pictures of her and Elliot, and after she would read him one of her practice reading pages from her doctor he would tell her a story about one of the pictures from the album. Like why he had taken the picture, or what the two were celebrating at the time.

He was just about to open up the photo album when something pulled him out of his deep thought. Shouting. Then a faint yelp, across the hall from what it sounded like. Elliot immediately went in to cop mode and set Michelle's album down. He shot up off the chair and ran into his room to grab his gun, just in case he needed it.

* * *

Olivia was getting ready for bed when she heard the all too familiar voice call her name. She was putting on her pants when she heard him; "Olivia?" He shouted. Olivia groaned at the sound of her ex boyfriends voice. She stomped out of her bedroom and in to the living room, where she was preparing herself to open up the front door to see her awaiting ex, but jumped up and gasped in shock when she saw her door busted open, and him walking around the living room, waiting for her.

"Really, you move again Olivia? How many time do I have to tell you! You can try to run you little bitch, but you will always be mine!" He snarled.

"What the hell, Dean? How did you even get in here?" She asked worriedly, oh god she could only hope that he didn't hurt anybody.

He shook his head impatiently and stormed over to her, grabbing his ex by her hair harshly. He bent her head down to the floor so she didn't look in to his eyes. He had always hated when he had to show her his darker side, but if that's what it took to get her back, then he was always willing to do so. She was good bragging rates to his friends, and he missed being the one with the sexiest girlfriend in the gang.

"Don't you know that I can get in to any building?! Especially one where your ass is hidden in." He screamed down into her scalp.

Olivia yelped out in pain as Dean slightly lifted her feet off of the floor by her head and threw her back down, letting go of her locks. She stumbled back into the wall, letting a few tears escape her eyes as Dean cooled himself off. When he was at least calmer than before, he turned around and walked towards Olivia, grabbing her wrists and pinning them up next to her head.

"I'm sorry I have to get violent like this, Livvie. You know that I would have a beautiful sexy girlfriend like you are right now than a bloody beat up one like you know you have been. But if you don't cooperate, you leave me no choice but to beat you into submission." Dean whispered in her ear, putting all of his weight against her and the wall.

"Why don't you just leave me alone, Dean? I don't love you anymore, you're just making a mistake." Olivia whimpered with another cry as Dean shoved his fist into her stomach to shut her up.

"No. Oooh no, I'm not the one making the mistakes here. You do love me and I can see it, so why don't you just give in, huh? Come on, it'll be nice. We can move in together, spend the whole day with each other. And then maybe, if you're lucky, we can try for that kid you've been bugging me about." Dean chuckled into her ear again, then backed away from her so she could breath.

That's when Olivia made the move to push him away from her, and kick him in the crotch to where he fell to his knees. She sobbed into her hands as air refilled her lungs.

"I would NEVER have a child with you! You would only treat them as horrible as you treat me, or worse. I DON'T love you Dean, get over it... go find someone else to fuck!" She shouted.

Dean slowly made his way off of the floor and stood up straight, directing his eyes towards his girlfriend, in his eyes. He scowled at her and shook his head doubtfully.

"Oh you little son of a-" Dean started, stomping towards her with every word. He had her up against the wall again in a matter of seconds, but was brought back down to his feet by a sharp pain in the back of his head. The gun.

Elliot grabbed the collar of Deans shirt and roughly pinned him up against the wall, right where Olivia used to stand, his face connecting with it. Just the close proximity itself made Olivia flinch and back away quickly, which didn't go unnoticed by Elliot. But he could guess why, this guy had probably been beating Olivia for months now, she already knew his name from what he had seen. He pulled out his handcuffs and slapped them on him, then turned Dean around so that he could see his face.

"What's your name, bitch?" Elliot shouted into his face.

Olivia turned away as Elliot read Dean Porter his rights, and walked over to her front door. She was just about to close it so the riot didn't wake up her neighbors, but her eyes suddenly got big at the little girl in the middle of the hallway, grasping the arm of her stuffed monkey and watching the scene in front of her carefully.

"Michelle? Sweetheart, are you alright?" Olivia asked the child. She walked over to Michelle and bent down in front of her, waving a hand in front of her face. That seemed to pull her out of her little trance.

"Miss Benson? What's going on in you house?" Michelle asked worriedly as she watched her father handcuff a man and talk rudely to him. She had never seen her dad like that, and it actually really scared her, like he was a big giant monster.

"Nothing, sweetie. Someone just broke in to my house and your daddy helped me catch him." Olivia lied to Michelle again.

"Is he Dean?" Michelle pointed to the one up against her living room wall.

"Yes, baby that's Dean... How did you know his name?" Olivia asked her worriedly.

"You said it a lot, and he said your name back, so he responded to Dean, I just assumed." Michelle said proficiently, smiling warily at Olivia. She always loved to surprise her with how many words she knew, and how many tricks her father had taught her.

"Alright, well let's get you inside, angel. It's late, and I want you focused tomorrow." Olivia gave the child the best smile that she could muster up at the moment as she picked the child up and walked her back into Elliot's apartment. As she closed the door she noticed how at ease Michelle seemed being in Olivia's arms, it actually made Olivia genuinely smile, something that wasn't always easy to do, especially on nights like these.

Olivia jumped up out of her thoughts when she felt a sting coming from the top of her head, then Michelle gasp. Michelle must have touched where Dean had pulled her up by the hair, because now instead of it being numb like before, it hurt like hell.

"Livvie your head is bleeding! Ope! Sorry, I didn't meant to call you by your first name, Ms. Benson. Daddy always said it was disrespectful, but I didn't mean it!" Michelle rambled and looked down into Olivia's chocolate brown eyes. Olivia smiled sadly at the little girl. Michelle looked just like a little puppy, only cuter.

"It's alright, Michelle. Just don't call me Livvie in class or the other kids will get jealous, OK?" Olivia grinned. She didn't mind Michelle calling her Livvie at all, she actually liked the sound of it coming from her mouth.

Michelle smiled and nodded at Olivia, pulling out her pinkie.

"I promise." She mumbled, waiting to lock fingers with Olivia. Olivia smiled and connecting their pinkies and shook Michelle's a little bit before she let go to open the door to what she assumed to be Michelle's bedroom, judging by the fact that it had pink butterfly stickers attached to the door. Olivia smiled as she opened the door to the dimly lit pink yellow and green bedroom. Everywhere their were roses decorating the wall on a bed of grass, there was a big yellow sun painted in the right corner of the room, toy chests on either side of her little princess designed bed, and above the light green headrest of her bed hung the large wooden pink and yellow butterfly Elliot had told her about. It was fairly large, with pink wings and a yellow center with four little green dots, two on each wing.

"This is my room! Daddy painted the walls a LOONG time ago with my three favorite colors and made a grass field with pink and yellow roses." Michelle stated proudly.

"I see Michelle, this is really nice. I think I might have your daddy paint my room like this!" Olivia joked with a smile.

"But I drew the sun on the wall so I have to help you too." Michelle giggled.

"Even better." Olivia grinned. She gently set down Michelle in her bed and stood up straight, getting ready to leave before Michelle stopped her.

"Livvie." She called softly before she left.

"Yes." Olivia turned around and crouched back down to Michelle's bed.

"Daddy always helps me read him my mini stories before I go to bed. To help me read right." Michelle started to explain. She sat up in the bed and reached over to a packet of paper on her nightstand.

"But since daddy's not here right now can you help me?" Michelle asked, giving Olivia her puppy dog eyes.

Damn those blue eyes! Olivia knew that she would never stand a chance against them.

"Let me see..." Olivia sighed, grabbing the packet out of Michelle's hands. She smiled at how excited Michelle was to read with Olivia.

On the cover of the packet was a note. It read:

**Read one paragraph session. Stay on the same paragraph until the child can easily read what is on the page.**

**If there are words/letters the child does not know, skip them and replace them with your own words. Do not try to teach the word to the child.**

Olivia nodded to herself and opened up the packet. She taught this kind of thing to children all the time, she had given that lecture to parents over and over again. She basically knew these paragraphs inside and out.

"What session are you on, sweetheart?" Olivia asked as she flipped through the packet. Michelle stopped her when she got to the right page and looked over her shoulder to begin. Olivia looked up at Michelle and smiled, then put her finger on the first word, to show Michelle that it was time to begin.

When there was a pause in the room she looked up at Michelle curiously and then almost whimpered at the look of embarrassment on her face. Olivia knew that she couldn't read the word, 'Whenever'. Olivia got up and then sat back down on Michelle's bed, setting her down on her lap. Michelle whined into Olivia's shoulder and Olivia rocked her back and forth. Elliot was right about Michelle beating herself up.

"I wanted to show you that I'm really smart! But I can't even read one word without help.'' Michelle cried into Olivia's shoulder.

"I know, sweetheart, but you're already so smart! You don't have to prove to me that you can read to show me you're smart. Nobody's perfect, Michelle... Now come on, we can finish this thing together, alright." Olivia said. Michelle slowly nodded and pulled her head out of Olivia's shoulder and wiped her tears away.

"Whenever.." They said together.

Olivia put her finger on the next word and looked at Michelle.

"Whenever y-you... Whenever you." She repeated. Olivia smiled and put her finger on the next word. They kept doing the same motion until the paragraph was done, and Michelle was giggling with pride and joy.

"Good job, Michelle! You see, I told you you were smart." Olivia stated.

* * *

Soon after the reading with Michelle, she had drifted back off to sleep, which left Olivia alone. She wondered where Elliot could be. Surely, it didn't take him that long to arrest somebody. She just shrugged it off though, why should she even care where he was? Olivia slowly stood up off the bed, being careful not to wake Michelle in the process. She tiptoed over to the door, and gently shut it on her way out. She quietly walked her way down the hallway, and was preparing to leave when she jumped up at the sight of a man in the house.

"Olivia! Oh thank god, me and my partner were looking all over for you and Michelle! When I was in your apartment I saw you out in the hall with her and then the next you were gone. We went searching all over the city!" Elliot. It was just Elliot.

Olivia sighed and smiled sadly at him.

"I'm sorry for scaring you... Um, Michelle's asleep in her room. Um... yeah, I think I'll just go now..." Olivia stammered. The previous events of the night were just reappearing in her mind from the sudden freedom of work, and she felt herself getting ready to cry. She took a deep breath in and tried to bite back her tears, but she just couldn't.

She started to quietly break down right in the middle of Elliot's hallway. Elliot rushed over to her side and grabbed her before she fell to her knees, she was exhausted from this night, and he could tell.

"Why does this stupid shit always happen to me." She mumbled quietly.

"What stupid shit? Olivia, are you alright?" Elliot asked her. He sighed and walked her over to the couch and sat the two of them down.

"No! This is the fourth time this year that Dean has found out where I lived and broken in to my apartment. And to be honest, if it weren't for you he would have probably raped me again..." Olivia sobbed.

"Rape? He raped you?" Elliot asked, already angered once more. How could someone rape such a nice and lovely lady like Olivia?

"Technically yeah. Not the first few times that he found me. The first two he convinced me to get back together with him and once I moved in with him again he didn't waste any time. The time I moved before this over summer he tried to persuade me again but I finally told him no. So he called me a bitch and tied me to my bed..." Olivia could not believe that she was actually telling her story to a STUDENT'S PARENT that she just met that day.

"Olivia why didn't you report it? I could have helped you, me! I've been working at SVU for the past ten months now, I would have never let him get away with raping you." Elliot huffed quietly into her hair. That's when he also noticed the line of dried blood running all the way down the top of her head.

"Oh god, your head is bleeding. Here, let me go get you some ice for it." Elliot offered, already walking towards the kitchen.

"Elliot... I think I should just go home. I've already bothered you enough for one day, And I don't want to wake Michelle again..." She called out to him.

He came back from the kitchen just a few moments later with an ice pack in his hands. It was wrapped around in a thin dish towel, so it wasn't too cold on her head but it was still cold enough to numb the cut. A typical move for a parent to do. He gingerly placed the pack onto her head and waited for her to stop squirming and seething before he responded to her comment.

"I'm not letting you go home, Olivia. Not while he's still out there..." Elliot grumbled. Olivia looked up into his eyes. They were that navy blue again.

"Still out there, what are you talking about?" Olivia asked confused.

"We didn't have enough evidence to book him. We had him pulling your hair, but that's not enough. We had to let him walk for now." Elliot said softly.

"And I'm not letting you stay by yourself while he is out there. Especially after what you told me. Trust me, I do this for a living; stay with me where I know you're safe until he's locked and then I'll be out of your hair... And by then I hope this blood is out of your hair, too." Elliot chuckled, making her laugh for the first time tonight. Ah that laugh was so addicting, and the way her lips curled into a smile as she did so, and her cheeks turned a bright pink. How she hung her head low so he just couldn't see the sparkle in her eyes. He would never admit it to her but he would always remember her laugh.

"Alright, I trust you. But if you don't let me shower tonight say so right now so I can go. The blood isn't gonna go away on it's own." She said, truthfully, but despairingly.

"Deal.'' Elliot smiled his charming smile at her. Just like Elliot, Olivia would never forget something about him. His smile. How he didn't smile really, it was kind of like a Cheshire Cat grin without his mouth going as wide. How his blue eyes brightened up even more, even when they were navy blue they turned back to a sky blue in the matter of seconds. How he smiled very rarely, except for when it came to Michelle or surprisingly herself, when he almost couldn't stop smiling. She would never admit it to him but she would always remember his smile...

* * *

**And we're too busy to add anything else so we'll just end it right there! Lol. Good morning free world! Hope you slept well, as usual we didn't. We were too busy staying up for you all writing! It's ok, we slept last night... But anyways, here we are! 5:00 A.M. July 11th, just finishing a second chapter for Playing Matchmaker. Dean is officially a dick now, which kind of sucks. I used to like Dean, but STELLA HERE DOESN'T! (Don't know what's going on up in her mind, but... whatever...) Actually last night I thought I was possessed by Stella and she was possessed by me cause out of nowhere I started UNINTENTIONALLY speaking in an Australian accent as we wrote and she spoke in an American accent (Tennessee/California mixed to be exact) We sounded just like each other! Lol. Ah... I've got to get to bed before I become delusional. OK, goodnight/goodmorning! :):):)  
**


	3. Chapter 3

**I AM SO SORRY I HAVENT UPDATED IN FOREVER! it's just that Rachael and I have been so busy with school lately, we've barely spoke to each other about this stuff. But she's back to help me again, yay. But, my story I wrote without her Hiding is all mine, no help necessary from her. Okay, got to get back to my work, byebye!**

* * *

"Livvy. Livvy wake up!" Olivia heard a faint voice call to her, then a smack on the pillow her head rested on.

"Livvy, come on! Daddy told me to wake you up so you can get ready for school. Livvy wake up!" Michelle shouted.

Olivia's eyes fluttered open to see a freshly showered Michelle in a bright pink robe standing at the side of the bed, staring up at Olivia. Elliot had just left for work, but before doing so he woke up Michelle and told her to wake up Olivia at around five thirty so she had plenty of time to get ready for work. He thought that since he took her into his place for the night for safety reasons, he might as well give her her own personal wake up call. Olivia looked over to the alarm clock beside her. 5:29 A.M.

Olivia laughed slightly at the sight of Michelle. She kind of looked like an uptight business woman, crossing her arms in her fluffy little robe with that silly expression that just said 'are you kidding me right now?' It was funny and adorable all at the same time.

"What are you, an alarm? You didn't have to wake me up sweetie, you're too young to be waking up this early." Olivia grinned, picking up Michelle and placing her down beside her on the bed.

"But daddy said to. He said, and I quote: 'Michelle, I've gotta get to work now, okay? Can you do daddy a really big favor and wake up Ms. Benson at around 5:30?' End quote." Michelle stated funnily as she crossed her arms over her chest.

Olivia smiled to herself. Elliot was actually being really sincere to her, but she still couldn't understand why. She was just a first grade teacher dealing with twenty six giddy excited kids all day to go home to an empty apartment with no one waiting for her. So why did she even matter to him, she wasn't anything special. Maybe it was just the inner police officer in him, instinctively overprotective. And when he's assured she's safe, she'll be gone like the rest of them.

"He left you a note too. He told me to give it to you after a shower." Michelle said excitedly. She reached into the pocket of her robe and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper. She folded it out on the bed and then handed it over to Olivia to read. While Olivia read on, Michelle wandered off to her room to go get dressed.

Olivia smiled at what Elliot wrote. It was actually a little cute. It read:

_Olivia, _

_I hope you had a fantastic sleep, because I know I didn't back on the couch. :) No I'm only kidding. I can only hope Michelle remembered to wake you, if not please remind me to kill her. If you're still interested, Alex and I are heading down to this cafe called the Redmens at lunch today. If you want feel free to join us, if not I understand completely._

_Well okay then, time for me to get going. Duty calls._

_Your sleeping buddy,_

_Elliot._

_P.S. I don't mean to sound like a stalker, but I ran into your place, some of your clothes are in my top drawer for today._

Olivia silently chuckled to herself at the note, Elliot was so sweet and cornet was laughable.

"What'r you laughing at, Livvy?" Michelle asked from the front door. She was dressed in a little blue dress with red converse on her feet and her wet wavy hair gathering around her shoulders. Olivia smiled at Michelle lightly and stood up, walking over to Elliot's dresser.

"Nothing, sweetheart. What is up with the shoes, Michelle?" Olivia turned around with an armful of clothes and giggled, pointing to Michelle's tennis shoes. Michelle blushed and kicked them off of her feet quickly, wrapping her arms around herself unconsciously.

"Daddy always tells me not to wear my nice shoes to school unless it's for something special." Michelle crossed her arms over her chest defensively.

Olivia scoffed and nodded to Michelle with a smile on her face.

"Well, how about you go find something that matches this time, save that pretty little dress for something special, okay?" Olivia counciled.

Michelle nodded and ran back to her room to go change again while Olivia stayed in Elliot's room to change her clothes.

* * *

"Alright kiddies, fun times over. I know it's only the second day of school and all but you guys came here to learn, right? Right. Everyone go to your cubbies and get your math booklets, please." Olivia ordered her class.

The twenty six small kids jumped up, actually excited to learn, and ran to their cubbies full of school supplies. They all grabbed the green paperback math booklets and walked back to their respective seats and waited for Olivia to begin.

"Okay, so everybody go to problem number one. I want to see your fingers on the page." She reminded the class. That was Olivia's way of making sure everyone was paying attention. All of the kids put theor first fingers down on the page and smiled eagerly. It was always a competition for the kids to see who answered the most of Ms. Benson's questions.

"Good job, everyone. Now look at the problem. It says, what does it say class?" Olivia cheered, holding her hand up to her ear.

"SIX TAKE AWAY THREE." The kids rampaged.

"Great! You guys practiced over the summer. Now, who can tell me what six take away three is?" Olivia put her finger to her chin and pretended to think about it while the other children frantically wrote on their papers.

But there were already two hands up the second she said the problem. One was Vanessa, a natural at addition and subtraction. And then the other one... was Michelle.

"Well then, we've got two little geniuses already. Alrighty, Michelle. What's the answer?" Olivia asked.

"Six take away three is equal to three." She said proudly.

Olivia smiled and nodded, listening to the bell that suddenly rang. She jumped slightly at the sudden noise, making all the kids laugh, and then she giggled as well, standing up from the center chair.

"Well I guess we'll have to finish this after lunch. Okay class, meet me at the front door to go get your lunches." Olivia instructed, pointing to the assorted sets of children's lunch boxes their parents all gave them for school.

After all of them were handed out and the lunch buyers were escortes to the cafeteria, Olivia locked up her classroom and stepped out into the open air, leaving for the cafe she was to meet Elliot at.

* * *

Elliot walked in and immediately spotted her, his beautiful Olivia. She was wearing the outfit he picked out for her, which was a deep red long sleeved silk blouse with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows and a knee length black skirt. She kind of looked like one of those teachers from the nineties, but the look was cute on her.

She was sitting in a booth all by herself, sipping a cup of coffe and running two finger through a strand of hair behind her ear while she looked out the window. If Elliot didn't know any better he would have thought she was just a lonely girl, but no. She was waiting. Waiting for him.

He started a slow stride towards her booth, with a confident grin on his face, and a single red rose in his hand specifically for her. He stopped right at her side and waited for her to turn and notice him. She jumped at first when she noticed, which made Elliot a little less nervous.

"Well look at that, at least someone came. Thank god, I thought I was gonna have to carry this around all day or something." Elliot joked, handing her the rose.

"Oh, goodness. Elliot, thank you it's beautiful." Olivia exclaimed wiry a bright smile. Her bright smile, the one that made Elliot's heart swell and his body shiver. He nodded and crossed over to the other side of the booth and scooted in.

"Oh, I didn't know what you wanted so I just ordered you a cup of coffee, black like you made this morning." Olivia said shyly, she hoped it was okay.

"That's perfect for me, thank you. So... moment of truth. Michelle didn't give you any trouble this morning did she?" Elliot asked with his charming smile.

"No not the least bit. She's a little cutie. Actually, she was in your room this morning to wake me up and she walked in in a big pink fluffy robe with the strings tied around her and her wet hair to the side. She had this big frown on her face and her arms crossed like she was mad. It was cute." Olivia told him.

"Ah, yeah. That's, that's Michelle." Elliot sighed.

"Elliot, it's okay. She was sweet to wake up that early in the morning just to wake me. Even though you have to watch out for blue dresses, she will leave to school n a blue dress with red converse and pink socks, I've noticed." Olivia joked.

"Well I bet you would go out in a blue dress too if I set it out for you." Elliot suddenly changed topic. Olivia looked at him with a certain gleam in her eye when she looked up from her coffee. It was one that Elliot couldn't necessarily put his finger on, but he would always remember. It was like a mixture of love, lust, fright, and. And Olivia.

"Not really, detective. I'm more into red." Olivia sassed with a smirk.

"Red works." Elliot grinned.

"Well what dress would you wear? Yellow?" Olivia laughed. Elliot chuckled and reached over to light smack her in the arm.

"That was a naughty thing to say, Ms. Benson. Do you need a time out?" Elliot mumbled. He actually reached into his pockets and pulled out his handcuffs, waving the, in front of her face with one finger. Olivia bursted out laughing for a minute before he put them away, but then looked down to the watch on her wrist.

"Aw no. I've got to get back to school or I'm gonna be extremely late. Thanks so much for the lunch, Elliot. I'll see you later." She smiled with a rush out the door. But she was so happy to see him, she didn't even notice the man following her to the school.

* * *

Olivia popped the key into the door to her classroom ten minutes before the bell was to ring again. She pushed the door open slowly and hit the light switch on the side wall as she walked in, a smile plastered on her face. She was still in awe at Elliot's kindness to her. He was such a nice man. But she knew he wouldn't want anyone like her, only trashy good for nothing men wanted Olivia. She sighed and walked over to her desk, where her papers and things still sat. And so did, a man. But not any man. Was that Dean?

"What's up, bitch? How was your date?" Dean shouted as he stood up from the center chair.

"Dean, what the hell are you doing here-" Olivia began, but was cut off by a slap to the face.

"Shut up." He spat. Olivia turned her head in pain as a single tear escaped her eye.

Dean smirked and pulled her face towards him, making her look him in the eyes. He shook his head at how scared and small she looked, like an innocent child.

"You sick little slut. You're nothing without your cop boyfriend here to keep me from beating your ass." Dean let go of her face and pushed her a few inches away so he could figure out what to do to her.

He rolled his eyes, not coming up with anything, and lifted his foot up to her stomach, kicking her into one of the large round tables with rainbow colored chairs. Stomach first, good thing she wasn't pregnant. She screamed out in pain as her head bashed into the wood, leaving bruise on the side of her head.

"Yeah, you like that bitch? Tell me you do!" Dean bent over her and screamed in her ear.

"Dean, stop! Please." She shouted just as loud with tears now flowing freely.

Suddenly the lunch bell rang, and the sound of running children filled Olivia's ears. The kids were going to see her like this. Dean cursed to himself at not being careful and punched his fist into the wood next to Olivia's head, making her flinch.

"Ms. Benson! Can we come in now?" One child screamed from the door. They couldn't see her, because they were lined up against the outside of the classroom, but they knew Olivia never waited this long to let them in.

Michelle and Vanessa looked at each other worriedly. They could have sworn they heard crykng. Maybe they should just go in anyways, risk getting in trouble. Michelle at least knew Olivia would understand. Vannessa trudged her way in front of the line and through the door. What she saw was a living hell.

"Ms. Benson, are you okay?!" Vanessa cried, beginning to run over to her.

"Vanessa, stop! Don't come near him, I'm fine." Olivia mumbled from the desk. Her stomach hurt so much she couldn't even stand up straight.

"You, you get out. NOW." Dean barked at Vanessa. She felt her lip quiver as she nodded and ran away, running to a waiting Michelle outside the classroom.

"Vanessa, what's wrong?" Michelle asked worriedly.

"Ms. Benson... There's a man in there... And he's, he's hurting her." Vanessa said, out of breath.

"Oh my god... Him again?! Come on, I know where to go." Michelle insisted, grabbing Vanessa's hand.

"Where are we going?" Vanessa asked as she was being dragged.

Michelle smiled a devilish, revenge like smile. There was an advantage of having a police officer dad, and that was when you called 911, Michelle always got immediate service.

* * *

**Guess who's back, back again? Rachael's back, tell a friend. Lol. Hey I'm back pplz! Sorry I've gone into hibernating, school just started giving us homework again and I just got back from Denver, CO for a dance audition AND competition on Sunday. So I was ****so exhausted, I had to skip school yesterday and Monday. But it went ok, got second place solo in the competition and first place in group dance and duet. The audition I've got no idea yet though. Ok, gotta get back to late work, bye! :):):)**


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